OREANDA-NEWS. Far-seeing oilmen can’t be caught unawares by new tendencies. They always look a couple of steps ahead, foresee changes and prepare for these changes in due time.

That is why the new requirements on utilization of associated gas, which are rather strict, did not embarrass the oilmen. It was demonstrated at the conference of the regional administration which discussed the problems of using associated gas at the territory belonging to Pudinskaya group of oilfields. The oilmen gave their opinions (very reasonable) on solution of the “associated” problems.  And showed what is already being done in this sphere.

The efforts of such companies deserve approval. In this regard ZAO “Sobolinoye” is of particular interest, for there good intentions did not stay at the paper, but transformed into real actions. The level of associated gas utilization at the oilfield “Sobolinoye” has already reached 95 per cent.  Which is the limit established for oilmen by the government for the hear future.

“Sobolinoye” is a small-scale subsurface user – the figures of oil production here are quite different from those of, say, “Tomskneft”. But the problems of associated gas at “Sobolinoye” were quite serious. And the requirements on fulfillment of license agreements determining the parameters of effective subsurface management applied to this company as well. Small-scale subsurface users are not granted any allowances and bear the same responsibility as all the others. 

So, what way have the oilmen of “Sobolinoye” chosen?
  “When you deal in relatively poor resources like those we have, it makes you to search special approaches to solution of the problems”, says the general Director of the plant, Valery Gabrielian. – “Any large-scaled project on utilization of associated gas requires both large amounts of raw stock and  substantial investments. Such projects are inefficient for small-scale companies, it’s obvious. It is economically inexpedient to build processing facilities or  a pipeline which could take the gas to the main.

On the other side, continues V.Gabrielian, there are some factor which make us work over this problem. First: ecological regulations. No comments here. Gas flares at the oilfields are impermissible, no matter whether utilization works are expedient or not. And the second: power resources. The pumps at the wells consume a lot of power. And the oil industry on the whole is a power-consuming branch, everybody knows it. Diesel fuel is rather expensive and its delivery to the oilfield is not cheap either. As the result the price of a kilowatt-hour received by such methods proved to be significantly higher than in Tomsk. And this fact required searching for new power sources which would be reliable and not too costly. That was the starting point where the plant began their works on utilization of associated gas.

At “Sobolinoye” a minor amoubt of gas is directed to the boiler room:  for heating and for technical needs, to oil treatment system. It is a standard scheme which is usual almost for all upstream companies. But such technological decision can’t significantly influence gas utilization.

At the same time it is evident that it is very difficult to develop small-scale power systems at the oilfields with low oil reserves. The peak of production can be reached here in shorter terms, but the high production level does not keep long: unfortunately, the decrease comes very soon. So, is it reasonable to buy expensive mobile power stations?